Conventionally, when a tooth is pulled out, a false tooth is put in place of the pulled-out tooth or a dental bridge treatment, in which surrounding teeth are employed as pillars and a crown is positioned in place of the pulled-out tooth, is performed. However, the treatment causes various problems that false teeth or artificial teeth resulting from the bridge treatment are weak in chewing foods and exert a malicious influence on surrounding teeth.
Accordingly, as one treatment of an advanced dental medical technology, an implant treatment is introduced. According to the implant treatment, an artificial tooth root is formed in an alveolar bone, and an artificial tooth produced significantly similar to a real tooth is coupled with the artificial tooth root, so that a patient obtains an effect of using the real tooth.
According to the implant treatment procedure, an implant groove is formed by using a tool, such as a drill, to implant a fixture in an alveolar bone having no tooth, and a tapping work is selectively performed to securely implant the fixture into the implant groove. Then, after implanting the fixture into the implant groove, a cover screw is coupled with the fixture to prevent foreign matters from being infiltrated into the fixture and covered on a gum, and the gum is sutured, thereby finishing a primary procedure.
Thereafter, according to a secondary procedure, after about three or six months have been elapsed, the sutured gum is incised again, and the cover screw is removed from the fixture. Then, a heeling abutment is selected by taking into consideration to an abutment to be coupled to the fixture and coupled with the fixture, and the gum is sutured in such a manner that the interval between neighboring teeth is not spread.
The healing abutment cleanly forms a gum on the fixture before the abutment is coupled to the fixture. After about two or three weeks have been elapsed from a time at which the healing abutment is coupled, the healing abutment is removed from the fixture and the abutment is coupled to the fixture. Accordingly, an artificial tooth formed through a mold is coupled onto the abutment, thereby completing the implant treatment.
As described above, a scheme of performing the secondary procedure after the fixture is buried in the gum and an outer portion of the fixture is completely covered with the gum is called a submerged type procedure.
In the above submerged type of the implant treatment process, the fixture implanted in the alveolar bone serves as a tooth root, and the abutment is a connection component to integrate the abutment with the artificial tooth.
In particular, the fixture and the abutment constitute an implant structure to securely fix the artificial tooth to a right position. The implant structure is generally formed of titanium physically/chemically representing superior strength.
In general, although the implant originally refers to a substitute to recover a missed portion of a human body, the implant refers to putting an artificial tooth in a gum in the dentist. After a tooth root made of titanium having no rejection to a human body is implanted into the alveolar bone that a tooth is pulled out so that the titanium tooth root may be substituted for a missed tooth root (root), the artificial tooth is fixed to the tooth root so that the function of the tooth can be recovered.
Although a typical prosthetic appliance or a typical false tooth damages surrounding teeth or bones according to the elapse of the time, an implanted tooth does not damage a surrounding tooth structure, and performs the function of an original tooth in the same shape as that of the original tooth. In addition, the implanted tooth is not decayed, so that the implanted tooth can be semipermanently used.
In Korean Registration No. 1009257660000 (published on Nov. 2, 2009), a metallic member or “abutment” is received in a dental implant, milled, or prepped to receive a dental prosthetic device. The metallic member has a concave part extending upward from a bottom in an axial direction, and the concave part is fitted around an O-ball or an O-ring receiver abutment of the dental implant. The abutment including a coupling protrusion is provided, the coupling protrusion is placed in a coupling groove formed in an upper portion of the fixture, the abutment is coupled to the fixture by using the screw, a prosthesis including a screw hole is provided, and dental cement is interposed between the abutment and the prosthesis to bond the prosthesis to the abutment, thereby constituting a prosthesis mounting device and assembly to be disclosed.
In addition, Korean Patent Registration No. 1009257660000 (issued on Nov. 2, 2009) discloses an integral type implant provided at a lower portion thereof with a screw part having a lower portion provided at an outer portion thereof with a thread so that the screw part may be rotated about one axis and implanted into a dentary bone, and provided at an upper portion thereof with an abutment that may be formed integrally with the screw part, buried in a gum covering the dentary bone, and covered with a cap. The abutment includes a gingival level part making contact with the gum and a protrusion provided at an upper portion of the gingival level part and detachably coupled to the cap. The protrusion has a coupling groove extending downward of a top surface thereof, and the coupling groove has a sectional shape that may be engaged with a driver used to rotate the implant.
Korean Unexamined Patent Application No. 10-2007-0112075 discloses a detachable type abutment for dental implant that is fixed to a fixture implanted into an alveolar bone to support a dental prosthesis. The abutment includes a fixing member fixed to the fixture, an upper member fixed to the dental prosthesis, and a coupling structure to separately couple the upper member to the lower member.
Prior arts are listed as follows.
(Patent Document 0001) 1. Korean Patent Registration No. 1009257660000 (issued on Nov. 2, 2009)
(Patent Document 0002) 2. Korean Patent Registration No. 1010423720000 (issued on Jun. 10, 2011)
(Patent Document 0003) 3. Korean Unexamined Patent Application No. 10-2007-0112075.